


The Arrival of the Great Avar

by Oshun



Series: Diamond in the Rough [2]
Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 17:17:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12237264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oshun/pseuds/Oshun
Summary: Maia meets his grandfather. This is a stand-alone story--complete within itself. But I do have more written as part of my interpretation of this world. I will connect them as part of a series when I post them. (Several include many more of the optional prompts and preferences requested by forestgreen--consider this short story as a teaser.)





	The Arrival of the Great Avar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [forestgreen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestgreen/gifts).



**Winter - The Arrival of the Great Avar**

> _It was a ponderous monstrosity, painted red and gilded like a samovar, with tremendous staring eyes carved beneath the coachman’s seat, and a mouth like a bullfrog’s cunningly made between them. . . .The coach was drawn by ten black horses with red and gold enameled harness, perfectly matching the coachman and footmen, pure-blooded Goblins in red and gold livery._ – Katherine Addison, _The Goblin Emperor_

Maia had to admit he was curious to meet his redoubtable grandsire. But he harbored no love or even distant sympathy for the old Goblin in his heart. If anything, he nursed a sour resentment of the one who had given Maia’s mother as a political pawn in marriage to the Emperor of the Elflands. When Chenelo had been relegated from court by her spouse with their infant son, the Great Avar had not asked for her back or, as far as Maia knew, even inquired as to her well being or comfort. He left her alone in bleak banishment and disgrace to raise and educate the poor awkward hobgoblin as best she might. What kind of father would not have defended his own under such circumstances? How could he deal so with such a one as Maia’s gentle mother, so kind and longsuffering, who had endured her bitter exile without complaint? One ought to treat an out-of-favor retainer with more compassion than the Avar had offered his daughter and defenseless grandson. Chenelo had told Maia as a child that her father the Great Avar, although devastated that he had no sons or heir, had placed little value on his only surviving daughter, except as an arguably useful pawn in a game of diplomacy.  
                
No. Maia felt no familial warmth for the mighty and powerful Avar, although he was drawn by a strong curiosity, especially when faced with the outlandish opulence of this massive, gilded carriage, which would be nearly comic were it not so splendid. The fantastic display of his grandfather’s entourage caused Maia to smile to himself, thinking of how he had been first greeted at the Elven court as an impoverished, disgraced kinsman returned without warning from exile to become their Emperor. But the relentless ostentation of the Untheileneise Court couldn’t hold a candle to the shocking magnificence of the display of royal status made by this enormous conveyance and its lavishly liveried attendants. Maia struggled not to chuckle at the effect. The haughty denizens of his Elvish court managed to control their faces but not the widening of their eyes.  
  
Yet all were overshadowed—from the coach, to the extravagantly equipped matching horses, to the earsplitting fanfare of the renowned trumpeters of the Hezhethoreise Guard—when Avar Maru Sevraseched exited the coach. The onyx-skinned, red-eyed heralds lined up in front of the coach and cried out in unison, “All hail the Great Avar of Avarsin of Barizhan!”  Dumbstruck with astonishment, but determined not to show it, the gathered nobility of the Elflands, bowed with meticulously correct deference to the Great Avar.  
  
Maia as well was astounded at his first glimpse of the Avar. His grandfather was monstrously fierce-looking and huge! And then, he smiled directly at Maia! Without looking around him for approval or the adverse, Maia involuntarily smiled back, and _not_ insincerely. _Cultural differences_ , he mused, thinking of the unexpected and much appreciated warmth he had encountered at the dinner party hosted by the Goblin Ambassador Gormened a few weeks earlier. _Thou mayest be Emperor of the Elflands, but this is part of thy heritage also._  
  
Maia’s dark hair and skin the product of his Goblin bloodline had branded him as an outlier in the Untheileneise Court. He noticed for the first time, at the sight of his grandfather’s near-ebony skin, orange eyes, and strong Goblin jaw, that his own eyes, gray and clear as water, along with his more finely wrought features, might just as clearly mark him a member of the Drazhadeise royal family for those who were not too blinded by prejudice to see.   
   
"Csevet..." Maia leaned back slightly and whispered to his secretary who stood directly behind him. For a moment he almost dismissed his question as ridiculous, but then he said to himself, _Ask! moon-witted hobgoblin_. “Do you think we bear a resemblance to our grandsire?”  
  
He saw from a sideways glance that Csevet blushed. Even if it embarrassed him, Maia trusted that Csevet would answer honestly. “No, Serenity, you do not, other than some aspects of shared ethnicity. As far as particular family resemblances, we think your physical features are more similar to those of your half-nephew Prince Idra. Your height is doubtless enhanced by your half-Goblin heritage, but your frame is not more heavily hewn than many of pure Elven lineage.” The secretary struggled to control a muscle at the corner of his mouth.  
  
Maia did not know if Csevet found his question amusing or annoying, but allowed himself a cautious smile in empathy with his attempt not to hide any change of expression. He did not mind that he had at times caught the self-controlled Csevet grinning at something he said. He imagined those smiles to be tolerant or even affectionate, while in another he might have wondered if they could have been mocking. “Our mother was tall yet graceful,” Maia said. “She _was_ large-boned by Elven standards though. Although during her illness, she faded to a shadow of herself.” He detected a sad wistfulness in his own voice. “Even if she had not diminished, nothing about her ever would have led us to expect the size and girth of the Avar.”  
  
Csevet answered him in a wry murmur, barely more than a warm breath against the back of his neck. “Forgive our insolence, Serenity, but nothing could prepare _anyone_ to expect the size and girth of the Great Avar. However, he does have a look of care and compassion, about the mouth and eyes, which reminds us of you.”  
  
Compassion again. Maia had but moments earlier in his own mind accused the Avar of lacking compassion although he knew next to nothing about him. Perhaps Maia did not have the crucial information which might have told him why the Avar had left his mother on her own in Isvaroë after she had been banished from the Untheileneise Court. Mayhap he had contacted her and she had rebuffed him. Maia, child that he had been, knew his mother was lonely and melancholy, but he also recalled how she maintained her dignity under conditions that bordered upon physical deprivation. The Avar might have chosen to withhold support until a more propitious time in order to prevent an international dispute, but years had passed between when his mother was relegated and when she sickened and died. Maia told himself that he must withhold judgment, that it was his duty to treat a fellow monarch of such importance with respect, not simply because protocol demanded it, but for the sake of the Elflands and its people who depended upon him. The Avar’s visit at this time offered Maia not inconsiderable support in a world filled with hostility and uncertainty. Maia had few enough allies to reject such an essential one out of childish pique.  
  
He also recalled how he had been moved at his father’s funeral to pray for compassion for him—he who had not cared for Maia at all—and for his deceased older half-brothers whom he had never even met. Maia decided that before his grandsire returned to the Barizhan, he would find an opportunity to ask why he had not sought to protect or succor Maia and his mother.  
  
While Maia had continued with his circular ruminating about his impressions of his grandfather, his sense of being split between two worlds neither of which completely accepted him or within which he was totally comfortable. Under a glacial white sky, the crowd of onlookers stretching before Maia, to both sides and behind him, had suddenly stilled into frozen silence. The Avar appeared as extraordinary and compelling to them as he seemed to Maia. Comprehending his effect, the great mountainous Goblin strode toward Maia waving amiably in greetings to the crowd. At the sight of his pleased and self-confident air, the crowd’s stunned silence was replaced by a welcoming roar. He climbed the steps, with an alacrity which gave lie to his weight and size, and stopped before Maia.  
  
At that moment Ambassador Gormened, bowed to the Barizhin king and announced in Ethuverazhin, for the benefit of the crowd, _“The Great Avar of Barizhan greets the Emperor of the Ethuveraz and thanks him for his hospitality this Winternight.”_  
  
Unwilling to remain speechless or embarrass himself with a failed attempt at eloquence, Maia bowed his head to his grandsire and, falling without conscious intent into his first tongue, said firmly in Barizhin, _“We welcome you. Please, come inside where it is warmer.”_  
  
The Avar stared directly into Maia’s eyes for a brief moment _, unblinking and unreadable, and then his laughter boomed across Parmeno Square. “Perhaps you are more a Goblin than you look!”_  
  
He pounded Maia hard with the double handclap on the shoulders, the traditional comradely greeting among Goblin men, before gesturing to his soldiers and servants lined up behind him. _“We agree—let us go in!”_  
  
A small reception had been organized in the Tortoise Room inside of the Alcethmeret. A long table had been set with plates of hot and spicy savory delicacies and bracing drinks in the Goblin style, which they had been advised the Avar might appreciate after a long trip in the bitter cold. Maia had particularly requested the Tortoise Room. It was the only reception chamber which Maia deemed comfortable which was large enough to accommodate the carefully chosen, but motley, collection of the extended royal family and powerful courtiers who had to be included. Maia looked around satisfied that the amber brocaded walls, banks of candles, and lit fires gave the room a welcoming ambience. The temperature went a long way toward tempering the bone-deep cold that settled into one standing in the frigid air and sharp wind on the steps leading into the palace complex.  
__  
True to his initial intent, as soon as the Avar was settled in a large—thankfully large enough—chair and served with a goblet of a hot toddy well-laced with the searing Goblin alcohol, Maia took advantage of the moment to address his grandsire personally. He feared such opportunities might be difficult to come by in next days, filled as they would be with public events and celebrations.  
  
He blurted out, louder and shriller than he had intended, _“Why did you not answer her letters?”_  
  
No small number of the Barizheisei overheard him and stiffened, since there was no such thing as true privacy in the Untheileneise Court. The Avar stilled perceptively, directing his gaze into grandson’s eyes, with an expression of immeasurable sadness and regret. When he answered, his voice was tinged with both warmth and a profound tenderness. _“It seemed better. She was not ours. We could not help her. What else was there to say?”_ Maia released a deep breath. He should have known, but he was glad he that had asked. But while it hurt his heart, he realized with painful suddenness, that there was nothing to be done to right the multiple wrongs suffered by his mother, but he pledged himself going forward to do what he could to prevent such treatment of other mothers and their children under his control.  
  
[Phrases in italics above have been taken directly from the original text.]

 


End file.
